Alrighty! So future me, we’re gonna talk about programming an ATtiny chip, and making it work with a pot and slider! (You’ve probably done this a lot by now, but hey, it doesn’t hurt to look back!)
So we got ourselves an ATtiny85:
You tried the ATmega328 and all it gave you is disappointment. (You even looked about building an Uno standalone on a breadboard). Maybe looking back you have used it more, if not, well, I don’t blame you.
At any case, here is your crazy ass set up that was half-assed and didn’t work. (Don’t worry, you got it better after class, but sometimes it’s nice to see the progress):
BURNING THE BOOTLOADER ONTO THE UNO:
Open up the IDE, the go to File > Example> ArduinoISP > ArduinoISP .
Once the sketch loads, choose your Uno at the Board, and whatever COM channel it’s connected (COM 6 and COM 10 seem to be the ones that show up often.) Then Upload!
Then once you get your board setup, load the sketch you’re putting onto the ATtiny.
Go to Tools, set Board to ATtiny, select ATtiny85 for the Processor, and internal clock at 8MHz (Internal).
VERY IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER! GO TO SKETCH > UPLOAD USING PROGRAMMER NOT UPLOAD WHEN PUTTING SKETCHES ON THE ATTINY DIRECTLY!!
And if for some case you are missing the boards for the IDE, here are the sources:
So then, the next step was to make a circuit that faded and LED. Any sensor would do, though contemplating a photocell or an FSR, we went with our favorite, the tried and true potentiometer.
And used an UVA LED from Adafruit because you bought a bunch and wanted to play with them.
I mean look at that, it’s kinda of cool. (But don’t do that for long lol, running the LED at 5V directly from Uno heats up REALLY fast.)
After some office hours with Andy, the circuit was even more refined.
Here is the closest approximation to it in Fritzing, don’t trust the schematic outright, see your own handmade one below:
ONTO THE TESTING!
Once we know it was working, Andy suggest we get fancy. So a trip to Tinkershpere later and purchased this Slider.
Again, closest approximation, probably should rely on handmade schematic.
A test of the slider as well!
[If you are reading this, I left this place for additional experimentation with FSR/Photocell but wasn’t able to get to it. Sorry!]